LED sconces spice up dorm room parties

This dorm room is ready to entertain, thanks in part to the LED wall sconces that [Joseph] hacked together. Inside each fixture you’ll find three 3-Watt LED modules. For proper heat dissipation he mounted them on sheet metal which he cut out, including some fingers for additional surface area. The shape for the heat sink was chosen to fit behind the diffuser of the sconce, which is an incandescent light fixture with the socket removed.

[Joseph] designed his own control boards for the base station and LED modules. They communicate with each other via RS485, which lets him run CAT-5 cable to each, but the lights do require external power as well. The controller itself is a USB dongle which takes the serial commands from a computer and pushes them out over the RS485 protocol. In the video after the break you can get a good look at the hardware and the overall performance of the system.

I’m trying to get them under $30. The cost of the components is kind of high right now, but I’m looking to reduce that; there is some extra stuff on the board. Also, an ATMEGA168 is way overkill given the simplicity of the firmware.

I would really like to be able to sell them as kits or something. I think that others could benefit from them.